Hello everyone, this week I want to welcome Ben Edwards from
Peloton magazine to the podcast. Ben, thanks for joining us.

No problem. Thank you for having me and having a having to the
Peloton gravel, Bob and Peloton magazine on the show.

Yeah. I'm excited to dig in with you. I always like to start by
giving our listeners a little bit of understanding about your
background as a cyclist, your current sort of gravel interests and
because he worked for Peloton magazine. Love to hear a little bit
about how you arrived at Peloton.

Yeah, sure. Well, I, I got into bike racing as a kid in high
school. I played water polo and a kid showed up on pool deck with a
road bike and he was wearing tights and we all kind of made fun of
him, but in the back of my head I'm thinking that looks really cool
and I want to do that. And my dad had a background as a cyclist, so
once I told them I was interested then it was. It was full gas and
I spent a lot of years racing is a junior track racing, a lot of
team pursuit, a points race, stuff like that. And then really, um,
after I was about 21 I realized I was not going to win the Tour de
France. And so I, I went to school and I didn't touch the bike for
almost 10 years. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, my wife, when I was 30, bought me a
road bike. I took one look at it and I said, uh, oh, we're in
trouble. I just, I felt that, uh, that passion just immediately
explode. And uh, yeah, it was in the movie business. And so I
started doing a lot of, um, lot of film work in the cycling
industry. And I started a website called [inaudible] dot com where
we did a lot of bike reviews. And, uh, and from there I met Brad
Rowe, who is our publisher at Peloton magazine. I met Tim Shamburg,
who's our creative director, and those guys were itching to do a
different kind of cycling magazine and they invited me to come on
board and, uh, enjoying the party and that was eight years ago,
eight years ago when we founded Peloton magazine, along with Adam,
rick and Robert Rex and, um, man's been 80. We're on working on her
80th issue now. It's just hard to believe because it still feels so
fresh and fun. But yeah, eight years ago, working on her 80th issue
now.

That's amazing. For those of you who haven't seen Peloton
magazine, I definitely encourage you to go out and grab an issue
really beautifully done. Every time I have an a, every time I
receive an issue, I'm just inspired to ride. I think you guys do an
amazing job of capturing the visual aspects of cycling and it just
makes you want to kind of get suited up and go out the door.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Or um, you know, our goal
with Peloton really was we didn't do a lot of focus groups. We
didn't try and think what do people want to see, we just did what
we wanted to see and luckily people agree with us, so we had a
really fun ride for eight years and this will be our biggest year
yet. Um, so, so nothing but, uh, on the web. It's looking really
good.

That's awesome. And it seems to me that Peloton seized on the
gravel cycling scene pretty early on and has really done a lot to
kind of promote gravel within the pages in the magazine.

Yeah, I think that gets back to what I just mentioned, that when
we just saw something we liked and we were interested in, we didn't
worry if it was going to be a fit or if a drop bar magazine should
be doing something in the dirt. We just thought it was cool and we
just knew we were doing a lot of it on our own and we wanted to
make it part of the magazine. I've always been at a mountain bike
riding and mountain bike racing than a lot of that. And um, it was
a great way to one, get dirt riding in Peloton magazine, which is
really a drop bar, road magazine, and it was also, you know, I
mean, I think it's everyone knows who rides gravel it, it's an
incredible way to sort of reinvent writing territory. You may cite,
you thought you knew well, you know, loops that were not possible
on a road bike or not a lot of fun on a mountain bike because there
was a bunch of road sections or is all just fire road are suddenly
unlocked on a gravel bike. Eh, you know, in a way that's really
inspiring. And, and I'm good, like I said, reinvents areas that
people thought they knew. Well there's, there's new rides to be
had.

Yeah. I think for me, as I've said many times on this podcast,
it's really drawn me back into cycling. Just that idea that I can
create these mixed terrain loops and travel all over marine county,
avoid the cars and see the beautiful scenery. It's just, it gets me
out riding, which is super exciting about the gravel scene.

Yeah, absolutely. And, and that's, that's a huge part of it is
getting just out of traffic, you know, my wife, she asked me, are
you going for a ride where you going? And if I say I'm writing
gravel, she kind of breathes a sigh of relief and goes, have
fun.

I never thought of that. But it's so true. I'm curious for your,
from your perspective in the industry and as somebody who's been on
the both the road and mountain side, what, what part of the sport,
if, if you had to, if you had to say from the road side or the
mountain side, do you think gravel is drawing more athletes
from?

Well that's a great question. Um, I, I would say probably from
the road side right now because, you know, a lot of the guys who
were on mountain mountain is so segmented anyway, so segmented.
Anyway, there's so many guys that are downhill and so many guys
that are all mountain an enduro. And, and I do think a fair amount
of the equity guys, the cross country guys have found gravel riding
gravel racing. Um, but I just know so many friends that are just
dedicated roadies that just their eyes have just been opened up by
gravel riding and what's possible and they're so excited about the
equipment and about trying to find the right gravel setup for them.
Um, and it's a lot of things, you know, talking about tire pressure
and tire size. You're riding that mountain. Bikers are familiar
with that kind of conversation and for a lot of roadies it's very
new and so it's really, um, it energizes them in a way that I don't
think, um, they have been for awhile.

Yeah. I tend to agree with you. It's something I've been
pondering for a little bit now because I do think that more roadies
are discovering gravel then mountain bike guys, for all the reasons
you just described and I think it's having an effect on the
equipment in the space as well because I think a lot of the
equipment manufacturers came from that road plus mindset versus a
mountain bike mindset. And we're starting to see the influence with
the bigger tire bikes like open and thesis and a bunch of other
bikes out there that are really starting to look at it from more of
a cross country mountain bike perspective and add the road elements
on it rather than a road perspective and add the dirt elements on
it.

Yeah, I think that's. I think that's very true. You sort of look
at a gravel product right now and to me it always falls into two
categories. It falls into sort of gravel survival, which when you
look like sauces cycles, that's something like maybe a, a, a
cutthroat, you know, it's a little more relaxed, tons of tire
volume. It's also great adventure bike. And if you're going to try
and knock out cancer and you know, you're going to be out there for
a long time and just want to survive and be comfy. So perfect bike.
And then there's sort of that gravel race side of things, you know.
And that's um, that's like a salsa warbird, you know, something
where you're gonna run a smaller tire as you can. You're really
going to try and run light and you know, I want to be
controversial, but some of the guys were put an arrow bars on these
things now. So they're sort of. To me, there's two sides. There's
gravel survival in gravel race and those products are starting to
differentiate.

Yeah. I buy that. United had mentioned before on the pod that I
originally got interested in gravel from the bike packing side of
things and I was seeing. I was just interested in following races,
like the tour divide and not that I had done much of that myself,
but I started to look at those bikes in the types of adventures
that they were designed for and as someone who probably aligns
himself more as a mountain biker than a roadie. There was a, there
was an instant appeal to me. Um, and so you see the bikes, like
what salsa was doing with the drop bars that were, could have a lot
of carrying capacity and they were built for the, for the tour
divide. And then you started seeing the other side of the spectrum
where it was just sort of these road plus bikes that may be, could
get out to a 38 tire Max. Um, so I liked those two categories as
you define it. And clearly there's no right or wrong answer. I
think it's an interesting discussion to continue to have with lots
of people because as my listeners are trying to figure out what
bikes are they going to buy to get into the sport, these are the
types of things I think you have to grapple with. It's sort of
like, are you just going to kind of get off the beaten path from
time to time or is it going to be primarily dirt?

Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I think, um, you're talking about those
bikes where you can get up to a 38, right? That's, you can write
that on the club ride with us at 28 mil tires. Put the 38th on it
and you got a great bike for gravel worlds or, or the Peloton
gravel mob. But you might want something a little different if
you're looking at crusher or you're looking at at a dirty Kanza.
But that's again, I think one of the things that energizes people
is it's really tough to say what's the right bike for a specific
course because you're sort of always making a compromise somewhere.
You're compromising on the fast section. If you go with bigger
tires and you're more laid back, you're compromising on the more
technical sections if you're trying to run a real fast, narrow tire
setup. So that's the equation that everyone gets to wrestle with
when they are signing up for these events and trying to, you know,
trying to build their right bike.

That's a great segue because I want to talk about the gravel mob
event that is coming up. Sure. It's actually one of my favorite
events. As I mentioned to you before. I think I'll be on my third
edition this year when I come down and on it to me captures all the
elements of a great gravel ride. It's got great adventure. It
brought me way off the beaten path that never written any of that
terrain. And the first time I had been down there, and Ohi I hated
my bike at one point and I love to add another point. I wait all
day long for that ripping single track at the end. I'm going to
tell you that right now because I'm the guy who rides the fat tires
and I'm dragging up hill, but when I get there, boy, Oh boy, I am
cruising down there and finding the guys who elected to be on 28
suffering through that tiny last section of the course.

Yup, Yup. Yeah, absolutely. That, that is a, our Howard creek
descent off the ridge line. It's definitely something that the, uh,
the event has become known for.

So tell us how the event started. I know you're linked up with a
great shop down there and Ohi and a lot of great sponsors. I just
love to hear about how it all got started.

Yeah. Well, so it's our fifth year doing this when we did it
with a mob shop in Ohio, uh, one of the owners of the mob shop, Tim
Rowen is my co race director. So we pretty much, you know, um,
it's, it's pretty equal load there in terms of the, the entire
creation of the race, um, and, and running it itself. So we, uh,
went six years ago, we had a Peloton cross, we were doing a cross
race out at Lake Casitas here in Ohio and we decided the next year,
hey, on Sunday after the cross race, let's do a gravel ride and
let's go ahead and kind of create this course that we think shows
off the best of, of gravel riding in Ohi and sort of Ventura
county. And we realized pretty quickly that, uh, it was a lot more
fun too in that gravel race. Then I'm at the crossroads and we love
cross, but hearts were gravel, gravel is where our heart is.

So we transitioned into just making the Palatine graebel mob,
um, our focus and definitely have not regretted that. And we've had
some amazing sponsors come on to support the event and just support
gravel writing in general. Pattern racer has been a sponsor since
year one. And then make the gravel cane, which is just, they have a
bunch of great options for the ride and the gravel cane, whether
you're ride in the SK or one of the file treads is perfect. Easton
came on last year and Craig Ritchie, who runs their marketing
program, he was in the lead group all day. I'm that guy is crazy
fit. He'll be back racing again. A goo comes out, good nutrition,
you rehearse while day. Kansas Champ. He comes out and he leads a
ride the day before and then he crushes it on the course again. And
Salsa cycles coming back for that second year. Those guys have been
amazing support. And uh, we're giving away a warbird again this
year in our December issue. If people saw that ultimate bike build
we did last year, that was all salsa. All Easton. I'm pattern
racer. And then we're really super excited because Wa who's coming
on board this year as our official gps sponsor. So, uh, if you know
our, our raffle at the end, which is about as important as the race
itself for us a while it will be a part of that as well.

That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I, I've been lucky
two years in a row. I've walked away with something awesome. So I'm
stoked for that. So I know you said you wanted, you guys wanted to
kind of just create a course that took a good hard look at all the
disciplines within gravel and providing a sort of an option of
pushing your limits regardless of what your strengths are. So if we
chop up the course, I know we've got a couple of climbs in there, a
couple of good descents. Can you talk a little bit more
specifically about the course and what people should expect?

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean overall the course is 58 miles. So
when people think about a gravel riding, oh, that's short. And it
is, it is short for a short program, programmable ride and part of
that's very intentional. We want people to enjoy the party after
and hang out for a long time, you know, we got tacos and beer and
like I said, the greater the raffle after. So that's as important
as the race to us is that community feeling after an in sharing
those stories from the course. But uh, we started out, the first
big, big obstacle is called Sulfur Mountain. It's a monster monster
climb that is in the neighborhood of eight miles, but it's really
like super highway dirt fire road. And so that's where the first
group group goes away, is right on there. Um, after that, the next
big climb is called CSR and a CIS. Our road is a beast. It's really
steep through a creek bed at the beginning. But again, fire road,
couple of water crossings, it looks like there'll be a little wet
this year and that's another super, super long long climb because
overall there's 8,000 feet of climbing on the course.

Yeah, that's. This is our climate is definitely. I think it's
part obviously that it's in the latter half of the race and you've
already climbed sulfur mountain, but there's something about it
that I think, well, for me it was just very taxing. I think it's
this super steep pitches and a couple of years I've been down
there, it's been super hot. Uh, so people were just melting away on
that climb.

Yeah. Did you get one of the popsicles?

I just have a night. I was just going to mention that. I mean
towards the, towards the aid station, at the top of the climb,
this, this young volunteers running down with shaking something in
his hands and he asked do you want a popsicle? And I honestly like
didn't know if my brain was working correctly, if I'm truly
answering the right question. Absolutely. I want to

popsicle. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. And there'll be popsicles,
oncourse again, don't worry. Yeah. So that climb, it's eight miles
long and it's over 3000 feet of climbing. So it's, it's a big ask,
although this year, and we can talk about this a little more when
we get to Howard trail. So there's some big updates there. We had
the Thomas fire come through in December, which really scorched all
of Ohio and you're going to get a front row seat to seeing what
happened with the Thomas fire in the back country of Ohio on this
ride. But because of that, the bottom of Sister Canyon road, which
used to be the most technical section of the course is beautiful
smooth dirt. So I did a facebook post earlier this week. Um, if
Neil Shirley's Koom is to fall, it's going to be this year because
the bottom of the course is so fast right now

that that could have a huge impact. I mean, I, that's, that part
of that climb sticks in my memory every year as something that sort
of piece pick male your way through. And a lot of people were
getting off and walking. So I, I think, uh, our friend Neil may
have some challenges in that. Keeping that KLM.

Yeah, the time is not so fast, but if it's going to be done
it'll be, it'll be this year. But then after you get to the top of
sis are you get to what I think is the signature moment of the race
itself, which is the North Ridge road. It's just this beautiful
eight mile long, gorgeous gravel road across the spine of the Topa
Topa mountains. And you're at over 4,000 feet. You have
unbelievable, unbelievable views out to the Pacific Ocean. You're
looking into the CSP wilderness left to your right. We think it's
the best gravel road in America. And uh, and to me it's a signature
part of the ride itself, getting getting our field up there and
enjoy. And that is incredible.

Yeah, no, there's definitely spectacular views. I spent a little
bit more time last year up there than I had planned as my good good
riding buddy. Todd got a flat and we had a hell of a time getting
his tire unseated off the rim and changing out. So we were probably
sitting around for 10, 10 minutes looking at that view as we were
begging for extra tire leavers from riders that came by and
eventually got it, got it corrected. And the good thing about where
we were located was a few miles further down the trail. We came to
the next aid station where I got the second surprising offer of the
day.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah. Are Our final aid station of
the day is right at the entrance to that single track descent you
referenced earlier. Uh, Howard Howard creek trail. And um, this
event is kind of run like a family event. So a lot of the people up
there are my brother, my sister in law. My kid probably ran down to
give you the popsicle. And so what my, my brother and sister in
law, I do at that third aid station. It's not officially sanctioned
by the event, but rumor has it if you need it to kill a shot before
you dropped down Howard, you can have a tequila shot before you
dropped down. Howard?

Yes. Ed recollection serves in a doe is all fuzzy at this point.
I had one of those, it, I don't think it had any net effect on me,
but I did because my legs were so tired at that point. But I
enjoyed that dissent, uh, as I said, I had the bike for it, so it
was a lot of fun and you know, it's always fun getting a little
tiny bit of payback for the guys who were on the super lightweight
setups on the way up.

Yeah. Yeah. So that Howard creek trail, it's called, is two,
almost two and a half miles of single track. You're going to drop
over a thousand feet. Um, it's, it's loose, it's exposed. Uh, and,
and that's always where I said, you know, at some point during the
ride, like you were saying, you're, you're having a great time and
you're cursing usually us for sending you down that trail, like if
you don't think that we're a little bit nuts at that point. Well,
it's definitely a, um, a cool moment. And I think for a lot of
people who are coming from that skinny tire background, it
definitely pushes their comfort zone and pushes their technical
ability. But everyone who gets down is so fired up that they were
able to do it and they realized really what these drop bar bikes
can do. Even with a set of 28 or 32 is, it's amazing what you can
ride.

Yeah, and I think the thing is it's so different from every
other part of that course that you've been on all day long to
arrive there and have to really just wind your way through that
single track. As you said, it's loose. It takes a lot of bike
control. It's a lot of fun from my perspective, but I definitely
saw that it challenged a lot of people and you know, a few people I
saw at the very end they're getting out onto the road where like
I'm just glad I got through that without injury or, or clipping out
too much. But then as you, as you're probably about to say, you're
sort of rewarded by this really fun ripping road descent.

Yeah. That's the descent of Rose Valley, which is sort of a
staple climb out here. But we send our writers down it. So once you
get off Howard, you get this a super smooth and flowing descent for
10 miles all the way back into Ohio. And uh, yeah, once you get to
that point, you really know you've cracked it, you're going to make
it, it's all good. Head Back Beers and talk.

Yeah. And I remember each year it's sort of linking up with
maybe six or seven people in pace lining and cramping, cramping as
I'm coming into town house, hoping that I could stay with the group
because I don't want to be out there any longer. And I know the
Taco guys are already cranking the Tacos.

Yeah. Well, and that's where guys who are riding the bigger
tires or you know, every year there's a few guys and hardtail
mountain bikes, which is great. We love it, bring them. But uh,
that's where they suffer. Uh, you know, usually not a big enough
gear and you're just turning a lot of tire to try and stick with
some guys on some skinnier gear and dropbox. But again, it's all
about finding not just the right bike, the event, the right bike
for you. Where do you want to make your compromise and that that's
all part of the fun.

Yeah. And it's in Ohio is a great community. I mean, it was a
community I hadn't visited prior to racing at Graebel mob, so it
was, it's awesome because you can go down there, you can make a
weekend of it, you can bring your family this plenty of plenty to
do and it's a community that can definitely use our support after
the Thomas fires last year.

Yeah, no, no question, no question. The fires were crazy up
here, but um, yeah, it is an amazing place to come hang out for the
weekend and like you said, bring the family, make a weekend of it.
Um, there's, there's plenty to do for, for everybody, but yeah, one
thing we should definitely mention is that Howard creek trail,
which we just briefly touched on, um, that's gone. That trail was
wiped off the face of the mountain by the Howard, by the, uh,
Thomas fire

really. So all the, all the, all the plants and vegetation
burned off at that trail.

What happened, if you remember a lot of the real scary sections
with little pucker factor. They had some wood retaining structures.
Will the Thomas Fire burnt those structures away? And then we had
heavy, heavy rain in January that just wiped the trail off the side
of the mountain.

Gotcha. Because it was, it was absolutely on the side of a
mountain and I could easily see like any erosion is going to just
take the whole thing out.

Exactly. Exactly. So we've, we've hooked up with a guy here up
in Ohio who is basically the Ohi trail whisper, this Guy Mike
Gourley, he's a staple in the Ohi Ventura county cycling community
and he just works tirelessly on these trails. And so a bunch of our
sponsors, eastern Guru wa who stepped up along with Peloton to help
foot the bill to repair that trail. So, so my Gourley is up there
with a crew, literally recutting Howard trail, almost almost from
scratch. So it should be an amazing shape by the time the race
comes. But I'm just a huge thanks to the sponsors for stepping up
to help, uh, you know, a pair of trail, not just for our event, but
you know, it's one of those popular trails in that Ohi back
country. So it's amazing that it'll be there, you know, be there in
great shape for everybody.

Yeah, absolutely. That's hugely appreciated. I'm super curious
to check that out. I know talking to a couple of local rippers they
were saying that they love to come up there and downhill that on
their bikes, which I can see.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The downhill is pretty fast and there's
a that is officially neutral on the course, um, because really
we're more of a ride than a race. It's not really about the race,
it's about the ride. And there's of course, like any club ride,
like anything, there's guys at the front that are racing, but
really officially it's a ride. We don't give out prizes for first,
second or third. Everything we get from these amazing sponsors goes
into the raffle. So whether you finished first or dead last, you
have the same chance of walking away with an eastern set of wheels
and new Wahoo, gps, new pattern racer tires, some eastern
components. Um, a bunch of good nutrition, some Schwag from salsa.
Doesn't matter where you finish, you have an equal chance of
winning.

Last year you guys did something interesting in the magazine and
you built up that gravel mob bike from salsa and you alluded to
that. You're going to do that again this year.

We're not doing that. That was sort of a, the ultimate build or
at least what I think would be the ultimate build for the race.
Like we said, there's the ultimate bill is different for everybody.
So this year we're going to be giving away a salsa cycles warbird,
but it's one of their stock builds. Okay. But still the way salsa
puts that thing together, um, you, you can't go wrong. It's an
amazing bike, not just for this ride, but for, for any ride,
whether it's back country or like we talked about, you want to put
on some skinny tires on it and write it on the road. It's more than
capable of it.

Yeah. I thought that was an interesting project because it just
illustrates a lot of what we've been talking about. How the right
bike for gravel mob you had, you had a bunch of different
constraints in there yet a bunch of climbing with 8,000 feet of
climbing, but then you had this gnarly single track descent at the
end. So putting together a package that would work across all those
different types of terrain was a pretty big challenge.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and you look at the bottom of CSR,
it's so steep. You really want to have that one to one gear ratio
or maybe even a little more gear, but then you have a ripping fast
spun out, descent down Roads Valley. So you've got to have a lot of
gear range. Um, and like you said with Howard, do I want to run a
40 mil tire with some Nabi on it so I feel comfortable on Howard,
but then I'm climbing with that up up. Um, you know, our first
cleanup, sulfur mountain, which is a really fast climate. You can
easily do on 28 millimeter road tires in the dirt, you know. So
it's all about this tradeoff.

Yeah. I have to say, uh, I've, I've added one easier gear each
time I've come to gravel mob and I don't think I'm quite there yet.
I'm mashing up a up Caesar.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know the guys that are really racing the
course. I mean some of those guys are hitting it on a 34 slash 28
or a 34 slash 32 less than a one to one. But then yeah, uh, myself
included us that are a little farther back. We went that one to one
gear ratio for sure.

We'll have to see. I'm thinking about making a couple of
equipment changes before, before the event, so we'll see what I end
up with this year.

Yeah, right on. Yeah, I know. Uh, I, I put 40 millimeter gravel
king slicks on that salsa ultimate build. And I know a lot of
people thought not slicks and file treads. A lot of people thought,
oh, why didn't you go with the ski with a little more knob? But,
you know, it was sort of my ultimate build. So maybe not ever been
everybody's ultimate build, but I wanted, I wanted the file treads
for the road stuff.

That's a. that's a good choice. I think we'll have to see.
That's what I love about. I mean frankly I'm like I'm not the type
of writer that makes a lot of switches for a specific. Even though
I kinda think about it a lot, but as I said, I've got a couple of
moves in my bike quiver that may be happening before gravel mob
this year. So I'll make some choices. Maybe with the intention of
changing things up a little bit.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that, like we talked about, that whole
equipment equation is such a fun and engaging part of it, but I
mean the other aspect to be of not just our event but, but all
gravel racing is. I look at it as sort of like the ironman example
where you get to race on the same course on the same day with world
champions, with guys who wrote the Tour de France with some of the
best athletes in the world and you're literally line up with them,
which isn't going to happen anywhere else, you know, and it doesn't
matter if you're trying to win, are you just wanting to be a
participant? You all get to have that experience together. I mean
last year at our race, but we had met over and came out. Got You
said mountain bike world champion there. You know, we got neil
surely lining up the guy who is, you know, 30 Kansas Champ,
unbelievable writer. We've had dave brisky out there and to really
get to line up with those guys in, you can try and stick with them,
you know? Where else can you say, I'm going to try and stick with
the tour Yellow Jersey on the at a big climb other than gravel
racing, it just doesn't happen anywhere else.

Yeah, absolutely. One of my strengths and gravel racing is the
neutral rollout. I don't tend to get dropped. Yeah, so I get to
ride with all the guys at that point, which I think is fun. It's
fun. Rolling out of 10, rolling out of Ohio together, down that
bike path, and then kind of getting everybody's geared together for
the first climb and and having the second start line if you
will.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's really is so everyone can line up
and start to get it because I don't know if you've ever done
something like the Belgian waffle ride. Not all neutral starts are
created equal. There are some full gas neutral starts out. There
are neutral strategies are real neutral. Start with a regroup at
the bottom of sulfur mountain and that's where the ride really gets
going. Yeah.

Now I want to go back to one thing you touched on which was the
distance of the ride at 58 miles because I do think personally that
that's the sweet spot. It's the type of thing that it's. It's not
insignificant. Certainly with the climbing, you feel like you'd put
a big day together, but it's also not bone crushing

at all. Yeah. Yeah. I made the top guys are going under four
hours, they're moving and then there's some people that are taking
six or seven of course. But uh, yeah, it's, it's to really sort of
reinforced the fact that we feel the community aspect is as
important as the ride itself. And you know, everyone's got a story
to tell whether you were first or last. So let's, let's hear your
story and let's do it over or some, some great tacos from Turkey, a
house in Topa, Topa. Brilliant. Does the beer. So it's a and we're
all hanging out at the mob shop. It's um, it's the perfect
environment to share those stories.

Yeah, it is. I think it's interesting as how the race promoters
and course designers are exploring the different ends of the
spectrum, whether it's shorter, punchier races that are really
truly races and everybody's gone ballistic the whole time. Or the
gravel mob distance, which I think is a, is the kind of perfect in
between a distance where it's hard and long but not epic. And then
you've got, you know, things like dk, 200 and the xl that are just
exploring the full epic side of the spectrum.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. How far can you go. And, and we, I love
that side of the sport as well. I've done grab a world's 150 mile
course eight hour day. Um, we love that side of it too. Bwr what
those guys do. They put on a great, a great event. But yeah, we
like to hang out and have tacos and beer and not be completely
smashed.

Yeah, no, I think I've come to the conclusion that there's room
for all of them, you know, in the calendar and some you're only
gonna do one, maybe 150 200 mile race a year and you'll focus on
that. But you can, you can drop in a ton of these 60 mile in
shorter races. Um, and have a blast doing them.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean that, that has been an
amazing part of this gravel riding explosion, not just all the cool
product and all the brands that are getting behind it, but the
promoters and just, there's so many great events. Uh, you know,
it's southern California here. We got Grapes of Wrath coming up
October 26th I think, which is an amazing event. Sandbar. And is
that the same emphasis, the rock cobbler out in, um, in
Bakersfield, which is another amazing events in, I think it's in
February. So there's just so many cool events that you as a writer,
you really, you have your pick of just a really fun calendar.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think the toughest thing is an earthing
information about all these great regional events and putting a
plan together to go hit them.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I know, uh, my buddy at fast track, Dave
lotteria comes out and does the gravel bob every year. But uh, at
the end he ended the year. He always does this big facebook post
with every single number that he has from the year. And as well as
I know the grapple seen, there's still some numbers in there. I'm
like, what event is that? And I have to look into it because
there's so much out there.

Yeah, I mean it's clear the classics of the future or just get
getting created right now, which is exciting to be part of the
sport at this juncture.

Yeah, absolutely. I was thinking that this year at Belgian
waffle ride, you know, the, the guys that um, that are going well
there and trying to win that, that's going to be their biggest one
of the season, you know, I think more people know who ted king is
now for winning dirty Kanza. Then when he was racing the tour and
racing the zero, I mean that's how far the sport's come. Yeah, I
would definitely agree with that

bullet. Ben. I appreciate all the time. It's always great to
talk gravel with someone who's been in it and, and making the scene
happen. I appreciate you guys creating the event and I appreciate
all the coverage and Peloton magazine.

Oh well, no problem. And thank you for letting us talk about our
event. Just we throw it out there at Peloton gravel mob is going to
be on November 17th this year and we want to put together, we've
put together a code for your listeners, so if you listen to the
gravel ride, go to bike, Raj searched, peloton gravel mob, put in
gravel ride 10, and you get 10 percent off your entry for being a a
gravel ride podcast listener.

That's awesome. Well, I appreciate that Ben, and we'll
definitely try to get a truckload of people here from northern
California to come down and hope hopefully listeners from around
the country. We'll have time to make plans and as I said, Ohio is a
great, great place to visit and an even better place to gravel
ride.

Categories

About the Podcast

The Gravel Ride is a cycling podcast where we discuss the people, places and products that define modern gravel cycling. We will be interviewing athletes, course designers and product designers who are influencing the sport. We will be providing information on where to ride, what to ride and how to stay stoked on gravel riding.